On The Eve Of Battle
by Higuchimon
Summary: [one-shot, Diversity Challenge, Asuka x Jim/Jim x Asuka, Tomorrowshipping, au: reversal] Asuka prepares to go into battle against the forces of Haou. An injured Jim wants to talk beforehand.


**Disclaimer:** I own nothing involved in this story unless I invented it myself. This is written for fun, not for profit. All forms of feedback eagerly accepted. Concrit is loved the most, but everything is welcome.  
**Fandom:** Yu-Gi-Oh GX  
**Title:** On The Eve of Battle  
**Pairing:** Asuka x Jim  
**Word Count:** 1,500||**Status:** One-shot  
**Genre:** Romance||**Rated:** PG  
**Challenge:** Diversity Challenge: Section C, #60: write an AU  
**Summary:** [one-shot, Diversity Challenge, Asuka x Jim/Jim x Asuka, Tomorrowshipping, au: reversal] Asuka prepares to go into battle against the forces of Haou. An injured Jim wants to talk beforehand.

* * *

Asuka shuffled her deck for what she felt could be the hundredth time. They would be leaving soon, and she wanted to make certain everything was in good order. She tried not to pay attention to the dryness in her mouth or the tension that tightened in her shoulder blades. The thought of fighting against _one_ of their friends disturbed her enough. But these days Haou's forces included not only Johan but Ryou and he didn't fight with his deck anymore.

The sight of her childhood friend on the enemy's side had been bad enough when they'd known he was there undercover to help them. They'd all done their best to avoid dueling him, partially to keep themselves safe and partially to keep him safe, to keep his cover from being blown. Shou hadn't liked it, but he'd never liked the idea of Ryou going in to spy anyway.

He'd been right in the end. That was a very bad idea.

"Tomorrow Girl?"

She looked up at the nickname. Jim stood there, freshly back from the infirmary and Ayukawa's efforts. One of his arms rested in a sling and a bandage wound around the side of his neck.

"Jim. How are you?" Perhaps not the most brilliant conversation starter ever, but Asuka didn't think he'd care. Jim never got upset about anything.

He shrugged, barely seeming to notice any of his injuries. "I'll heal. It's not that bad."

Asuka's lips quirked for a moment. "You broke your arm and got a chunk taken out of your neck."

"And I'm still alive. You can't say the same for that Vampire Lord." Jim pointed out and Asuka managed not to laugh. She wasn't sure how; Jim could make her smile even when she didn't want to.

She stood up, brushing her hair out of her face, and stacked her deck together, putting it into her deck holder. "Are the others ready to go yet?" Jim wouldn't be going with them. His injuries prevented that, and they weren't at such a pass yet that Edo would allow a warrior who'd been injured in battle back on the field, even if that battle had been nothing more than a mild skirmish that had been meant as a scouting run anyway.

"Any minute now," he told her. He didn't move from the door, and she stepped closer to him, blood running hotter and faster through her veins. "Tomorrow Girl, I would tell you to be careful…"

She finished it for him. "But that wouldn't do any good." How could they take their world back if any of them were careful? They _needed_ to take risks, even when the results of those hurt.

They still couldn't find the risk to take that would give them any sort of advantage over Haou. No matter what they tried, he turned it to improve him somehow. Taking their first leader, taking Ryou…everything he did worked in _his_ favor, as if unknown gods blessed him.

Asuka didn't believe in gods. If gods existed, they wouldn't have allowed someone like Haou to come into existence in the first place.

"I know. And even if it would, it's you." Jim smiled and that warmth increased deep inside of her. She'd felt it before, not always around Jim, but always when she was going into battle. She'd talked about it to Ayukawa once and had been told it was something about a body's reaction to the awareness that one could die soon.

Asuka didn't want to die. She didn't want anyone that she cared about to die. But when the alternative to not dying was leaving their world in Haou's iron grip, then it had to be risked.

She tensed at the feeling of Jim's fingers on the side of her cheek, cradling it for a few brief moments. She stared into his remaining eye, wondering as she always had what had happened to the missing one. He'd never said anything, and he always wore those bandages, even long after any injury would've been healed.

"I wish I could go with you." From the tone of his words, she thought he meant with her in particular and not just with the rest of those chosen for this sortie. Again that warmth flared, bright and hot and burning like a coal in the deepest part of her chest.

"This isn't going to be difficult," Asuka said, trying to find some kind of hope. "We're just trying to take this village back." It would be a small victory if they did, but they would always take what they could get while they could.

"That doesn't mean I don't wish I could go with you. Someone has to watch your back."

A tiny laugh fell from her lips at that, one a little more rueful than anything else. "People have tried that before. It doesn't always end well." Fubuki had nearly died once because he watched her back more than he'd watched his own. If Ryou and Yuusuke hadn't been there…

She shook that off; no need to think depressing thoughts on the eve of battle. Jim seemed to follow her thoughts and nodded.

"Maybe when you get back we can spar a little." The idea of having an actual _fun_ duel, not one in a circle of stone where only the victor would emerge, wasn't one she'd entertained for a long time. Any non-lethal duels were held for training purposes only. They all needed to be sharp and at the top of their game at all times.

But the thought of dueling Jim sparked the warmth of such a duel that she recalled from being a child.

"I think we can do that." It would depend so much on what the battle results were, who needed medical attention, and if she made it back at all. She'd won every duel when they fought, but there could always be that one time when her draws worked against her. She didn't _expect_ it but it could happen to anyone and they all had to be aware of that.

But the thought of coming back to see Jim again solidified the desire to come back at all that burned in the depths of her soul.

Edo's voice rang out over the loudspeaker. "Everyone going on the raid to retrieve Sun Village assemble at once. We leave in five minutes."

"That's the call," Asuka said. She ran a quick check over everything, Jim momentarily forgotten. Her deck holder hung from her belt, her battle armor settled into place, her duel disk ready for combat at any moment; she was as ready as one could get.

Jim stepped out of the way as she started toward the door and fell in alongside of her as she made her way down the corridor to the assembly hall. Neither of them said anything; she enjoyed his company too much to spoil it by thoughts of battle in these last few moments before departure.

"Jim, you're not going." Edo sounded more than a little exasperated as the two of them entered. "You're still on the injured list."

Jim just shook his head. "I know that. I'm just here to see you off." And if his attention rested on Asuka in the moment he said that, no one there said anything about it. If Jim's position and skill as a duelist hadn't been enough to silence them, the fact Asuka took a very dim view of anyone else's opinion of her love life would have.

She could see her brother looking over at them from where he and Yuusuke stood together, and shot him her best 'do not say a single word' glare, catching sight of the slightly pleased smile on his face. He quickly shook his head and drew an imaginary zipper over his lips.

Yeah, like she thought that was going to last more than five minutes. She looked over at Jim and sighed. "I think my brother is going to want to talk to you when we get back."

"He's welcome to do so," Jim said. "I want you all to get back safely."

Edo cleared his throat and jerked his head toward the door. They didn't bother with fanfares or marching in step, like tales of armies of old. A group of fifty or so duelists headed out to do battle to try to save a small part of their world.

Jim touched Asuka's hand before she began to move. "Good luck." It was the best that any of them could say.

"See you when I get back." She wouldn't say anything else. There wasn't anything she felt she could say.

Drawing in a determined breath, she joined the line of warriors going out to battle. As always, she knew this could be the last time she saw their headquarters. But she also knew that this could be the last time she saw Jim, and that worried her a little more.

She wanted to live, just to figure out why.

**The End**


End file.
